Ambition

He built 5,127 prototypes of one vacuum cleaner, most of them in a coach house beside his home. Electrolux told him he’d never sell one without a bag, and added that they made a lot of money selling bags. Manufacturer after manufacturer turned him down, so he built it himself. He was 45 when the first Dyson was finished, and it went on to become the best-selling vacuum cleaner in Britain.

This is the story of James Dyson, and we have a lot to learn from him.

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What is Ambition?

Ambition is a podcast about the world's most ambitious people from history and today, and the lessons you can take from their lives and use in your own work and life. Each episode is deeply researched, built around the definitive biography of one person (or in some cases, two), with dozens of hours spent reading, synthesizing, and pulling out what actually matters: what they built, how they thought, the struggles they overcame, and the tactics, strategies, and principles underneath it all.